Major Banks that Have Laid Off Workers, Sent Jobs Overseas are Now Benefitting from Major Tax Windfall

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) – Ranking Member on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee – today wrote letters to six big bank CEOs demanding they produce plans for how they will reinvest in American workers and bring offshored jobs back to the US. The Senator’s call comes as the biggest banks, have increased CEO pay and stock buybacks, while also raking in record profits and benefitting from massive tax cuts.

“Rather than use their massive tax windfalls to invest in American workers, big banks are instead using their tax cuts to line the pockets of top executives and shareholders after shipping US jobs overseas and laying off American workers. These banks need to provide Congress and the American people with detailed strategies on how their companies plan to reinvest in US workers and their communities,” said Brown. “American taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the bill for to Wall Street banks that fired workers or sent jobs overseas.”

According to a recent report by the Communications Workers of America and the Committee for Better Banks, America’s big banks have slashed jobs in the US while also moving and keeping jobs overseas. In fact, the nation’s largest banks cut at least 8,000 jobs over the second half of 2017, including many in the call center and customer service industry. In many cases, these layoffs of American workers have come as banks are outsourcing work to overseas facilities.

Bank of America in 2013 cut 1,100 jobs in Ohio when the bank closed a customer service mortgage center in Cleveland and two smaller centers in Independence and Cincinnati. The bank offshored its business support activities to the Philippines in 2012.

Citigroup has since the financial crisis reportedly relocated call centers to overseas locations and was among the American-based corporations that relied on the Philippines for back office operations.

Goldman Sachs expanded back office operations in Bangalore, India from 300 workers in 2004 to 5,000 in 2017 to support banking operations worldwide.

JPMorgan Chase laid off 1,000 U.S. workers and announced plans to slash at least 5,000 jobs, or 2% of its workforce, by the end of 2016.

Morgan Stanley has shifted operations from U.S. cities to locations such as India and Hungary in an effort to cut $1 billion worth of costs by 2017.

Wells Fargo earlier this year announced plans to close 900 branches. This followed a 2017 decision to close a Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania call center, eliminating 460 jobs and also announced it was building a second call center in the Philippines that would seat more than 7,000 workers.

Brown has introduced the Patriot Corporation Act, which would cut taxes only on corporations that invest in workers and keep jobs in the US.

Copies of Senator Brown’s letters to the big banks can be found below: